It is conventional practice to make use of a fistula catheter in order to administer enteral feeding for supplying liquid food or nutrients etc. to persons (referred to hereinafter as “patient(s)”) who have a reduced capacity to ingest food orally under their own power, due to advanced age or illness. When enteral feeding is administered, a fistula (gastric fistula) is established in the patient's abdomen region, a fistula catheter is fitted into the fistula, and liquid food etc. is supplied to the patient through the fistula catheter.
Fistula catheters which are used for administering enteral feeding can be broadly divided into what are known as tube-type and button-type according to the shape of the body-external fixing member which is disposed on the body surface. Tube-type fistula catheters have a longer tube on the body surface side than button-type fistula catheters, and therefore it is a simple matter to connect this tube with a supply tube connected to a nutrient bag containing nutrients etc. However, the long tube of a fistula catheter remains permanently on the patient's body surface, and therefore the tube may form a bulge under clothing, which is unattractive, or the tube may obstruct operations.
Many patients prefer button-type fistula catheters in which the member disposed on the body surface side is smaller than that of tube-type fistula catheters. A button-type fistula catheter of this kind which has been proposed may comprise a tube extending along the wall surface of a fistula and having an internal nutrient passage for introducing nutrients or drug solutions into the stomach from outside the body; a non-balloon-type body-internal indwelling part which is made indwelling inside the stomach in an embedded state in the body, which projects with an enlarged diameter radially outward of the tube and which is attached to the tip end of the tube, the diameter of the non-balloon-type body-internal indwelling part being reduced from the projecting state under the action of an external force applied by an obturator; and a body-external fixing part which projects in the radial direction of the tube and is attached to the rear end of the tube. See, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-35001.
With a button-type fistula catheter such as disclosed above, a supply tube connected to a nutrient bag or the like is connected to a body-external fixing member which is positioned on the body surface, and nutrients etc. are administered. The body-external fixing part is positioned close to the body surface, and therefore it is difficult to connect the supply tube if the body-external fixing member is small. If the body-external fixing member is large, on the other hand, there is a strong possibility that it will touch the patient's body surface, which is intrusive. If clothing etc. touches the supply tube, particularly while the supply tube connected to the nutrient bag or the like is in a state of connection, there is a possibility that the body-external fixing member will also be tilted as the supply tube is touched, and will partially bite into the patient's body surface; this leads to the risk of damaging the fistula and causing the patient pain.
Furthermore, when a button-type fistula catheter has been put in place and is then replaced with a tube-type fistula catheter, the tube-type fistula catheter has to be attached once the button-type fistula catheter has been withdrawn, which is invasive for the patient and risks leading to serious complications.
The present disclosure has been devised in order to resolve the kind of issues outlined above, and the object of the disclosure lies in providing a fistula catheter which allows the supply tube to be easily connected to the body-external fixing member positioned on the body surface side, and which is only slightly invasive for the patient.